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THE PEPJL OF OLTv SHIP OF STATE : 

A Sermon on the Day of Fasting and Prayer, 
January 4th, 1861. 

(by request^ 



(The folljj of out: .f jrcculationsi: 

A New-Year'3 Sermon, January 6, ISOl. 
(by request.) 

STPvICTURES OX A RECENT SERMON 

BY KEV. H. J. VAN DYKE. 

BY KEV. AV. P.. GORDON, D.D., 

P.VSTOU OF THE REFOUMED DUTCH CUURCO OP SCQRAALENBERGH, N. J. 



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llclu-norh 



JOHN A. GRAY, PRINTER, STEREOTYPER, AND BINDER, 
CORNER OF FRANKFORT AND JACOB STREETS, . 

rlRK-PBOOr BUILDINGS. 

ISGI. 



.5" 



THE PERIL OF OUR SHIP OF STATE. 



" And fallicg into a place where two seas met, they ran tbe ehip aground." 

—Acts 27 :41. 

This chapter contains an account of Paul's shipwreck on his 
voyage to Rome. In consequence of his want of confidence in 
the integrity of Festus, the Koman governor, before whom he 
was brought, at Cai'sarea, a prisoner, by the accusations of the 
Jews, he availed himself of the privilege of a Roman citizen, 
to appeal unto Ca?sar. This appeal at once removed his cause 
from Festus' jurisdiction, where he had no prospect of a fair 
trial, to the imperial city itself, far away from the influence of 
the prejudice and bribery of his sworn enemies. 

It was incumbent on the civil authorities to send Paul 
thither at their own expense, and as he had long desired to see 
Rome, but had no means of getting there, he rejoiced in the 
privilege of a free passage, though be went in the ignominious 
character of a state prisoner. The company embarked from Ca3- 
sarea, and arrived safe in Myra, where an Egyptian vessel from 
Alexandria was ready to start for Italy. On board this ship 
which, from circumstances detailed, might have been one thou- 
sand tons burden, Paul and his fellow-prisoners were placed ; 
and, as it was an unfavorable season of the year for sailing, 
they experienced heavy sufferings through a violent and con- 
tinuous storm. 

" Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was 
now dangerous, Paul admonished them, and said unto them. 
Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much 
damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives. 



4 THE PERIL OF OUR SHIP OF STATE. 

JSTevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner 
of the ship, more than those things which were spoken of Paul." 
Here is an example of the consequence of listening to rash and 
precipitate counsel, and imprudently running into the midst 
of evident danger. When by sad experience, they found it 
was too late to correct their miserable mistake, " all hope that 
they should be saved was taken away. But after long absti- 
nence Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said : Sirs, 
ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from 
Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss." Now there 
was no use of upbraiding them for their willful folly, since 
this would only tend to exasperate, without accomplishing any 
ffood. He therefore comforted them with the doctrine of 
God's providence, and the fact of God's promise, and urged an 
implicit reliance upon Ilim who holds the winds and the waves 
in his fist. 

Soon the practiced ear of the sailor discovered the peculiar 
noise of breakers between the bowlings of the storm. They 
feared lest they should fall upon rocks in the night, and casting 
out four anchors from the stern, they waited anxiously for the 
dawn. Perceiving the imminent danger into which they had 
now run the ship, and feeling their own inability to manage 
her, the captain and crew, in a treacherous and cowardly man- 
ner, collected together apparently to cast out anchors from the 
bow, with the intent to make the passengers believe they were 
doing the best they could to steady her. This would appear 
all right ; but then their secret purpose was, to get into the 
boat, cut loose, and let ship, passengers, and all go to the bot- 
tom. Paul was no doubt led, by an impulse from God, to de- 
tect their wickedness. The history states it thus: "And as 
the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when they had 
let down the boat into the sea, under color as though they 
would have cast anchors out of the foreship, Paul said to the 
centurion and to the soldiers. Except these abide in the ship, 
ye can not be saved. Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of 
the boat, and let her fall off." When daylight revealed to 
them the coast, upon which they had drifted, they knew it not ; 
but it was evidently a dangerous one. There was, however, 
an inlet, which they thought if they could gain, they might 



THE PERIL OF OUR SHIP OF STATE. 6 

yet be safe. Carefully did they manage to make this point, 
but suddenly, because of their ignorance of the dangers through 
which they were passing, they " fell into a place where two 
seas met, and rao the ship aground ;" and there she went to 
pieces. 

This scrap of sacred history is aptly illustrative of the sad 
position into which our ship of state has recently been 
driven. She is a, noble vessel, in all her appointments. Her 
name, United States; her code of laws, the Constitution. For 
the period of some eighty years, she has sailed the stormy 
main of public opinion, and has grown popular in the admira- 
tion of mankind. Iler flag is respected all over the world, and 
she has at length become the pride of the ocean. 

But alas I after she has done much good, seen much service, 
weathered many a gale, outridden many a storm, a mutiny 
has arisen on board : and that simply about the policy of her 
management. The consequence has been, that by the desper- 
ate struggle for the mastery, she has already fallen into a place 
where two seas of conflicting opinion meet, lashed up into a 
rage; and the apprehended danger is, that they will run the 
ship aground where she must go to pieces. The Southern, is 
a shaUoiv sea, a boisterous, roaring, clamor for the extension of 
Slavery ; the Northern one, a rolling tide, high and deep, for 
the extension of Freedom. Whatever other political differ- 
ences may exist, they are all now nearly drowned in the angry 
surge. By a sad misfortune, our ship of state has fallen 
into the place where these two seas meet, and their conflicting 
waves now break over her midships ; some of the captain's 
officers have fled their posts, and he is shivering in great per- 
plexity. Recognizing the power of God, as the last resource, 
he has called all the ship's company to fasting and prayer, lest 
the ship be shattered ; and our political prosperity perish for- 
ever, right in the place where these two seas meet. Such is 
the state of things in which we find ourselves at this hour. 

But there is a Paul on board — that is, the holy religion, of 
which he is a fitting representative in his epistolary exposi- 
tion of Christianity, has been all along through our voyage 
from the beginning, a comforting companion. If the principles 
which he has inculcated had been heeded by the political crew, 



6 THE PERIL OF OUR SHIP OF STATE. 

the ship never would have been in danger of swamping between 
these two seas, nor of being run aground amid the perils of 
disunion. 

This is very evident, from Paul's exhortations upon our 
political duties. What has he said ? " Let every soul be sub- 
ject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of 
God : the powers that be are ordained of God, Whosoever 
therefore resisteth the power, resisteth l<he prdinance of 
God : and they that resist shall receive to themselves damna- 
tion. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the 
evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that 
which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same : for he 
is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that 
which is evil, be afraid ; for he beareth not the sword in vain : 
for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon 
him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not 
only for wrath, but also for conscience sake." 

Surely, if Paul had been listened to, there would not now 
have been rebellion against the general government ; no matter 
how diversified sectional interests might have clashed. Subor- 
dination to the law of the general government, would have 
been adjudged by all, a paramount duty; and a brotherly re- 
gard to the mutual rights and interests of every portion of our 
country would have been the controlling motive of public 
functionaries and of private citizens. 

Paul, our common Christianity, may therefore be sup- 
posed now to say : " Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto 
me." But beyond this, we may not go; for no declaration, 
from an angel of God, will assure us that all shall be well in 
the end. Kevertheless, there is one consideration of import- 
ance to a rational hope: God has a great and mighty covenant 
interest in this our beloved country. Christ has many people 
here, and as the angel said to Paul in a direct message from 
Him, " Fear not, Paul ; lo ! God has given thee all them that 
sail with thee ;" so, in answer to the prayers of his people, this 
day, his voiceless providence may say to his imploring Church 
substantially the same thing. 

In this emergency, the President of the United States has 
called upon all Christians throughout the country to fast as weH 



THE PERIL OF OUR SHIP OF STATE. 7 

as pn^ay. And however diverse their political sentiments, or 
whatever they may think of him or his policy, it is their duty 
to forget all differences, all measures of partisanship, all irritat- 
ing disputes, and look the danger, which he assures us of, 
straight in the face ; and as he calls upon us to invoke the God 
of nations for divine interposition, /as^m^ as well as 2:)rafjing ; to 
express before Him a proper humiliation for our national sins ; 
we must do loth, if we ourselves would obey the powers that 
be, in the most appropriate and becoming of all duties. The 
executive state paper appointing this day, is an unusual one to 
issue from the chief magistrate of the Union ; and in view of 
its acknowledgments and implications in reference to the Sove- 
reignty of Jehovah, and the paramount value of the religion 
of Jesus, it should be accepted with thankfulness by every 
Christian heart. All, then, who do not/as^ as well as^;?'a?/, do 
not properly respond to the call made upon them. 

This Union is the native and adopted happy home of millions 
of people, who value it as a priceless jewel, and will do every 
thing, consistent with honor and religion, to preserve it unin- 
jured. We may therefore hope, that the Church of God in 
our land will earnestly and successfully plead with Ilim for 
the exertion of his unseen power in our behalf, which controls 
all men and things on earth, that lie may please to save us from 
the horrors of a civil war, by restraining the impetuous and mad 
career of those who are impelled by furious passions to over- 
ride and break down the most glorious political fabric the 
world ever saw. We are all in the same vessel, and must sink 
or swim together ; and now that she is already in the place 
where these two seas meet, our present concern is, if possible, 
to prevent the running of the ship aground. To employ an 
hour like this, therefore, to preach party politics, and inflame 
the minds of men, would be madness and wickedness com- 
bined ; utterly perverting the occasion, and incapacitating the 
heart to the proper performance of the duties now before us. 
We are not now so much concerned as to the men, and the 
means, and the influences, by which we have got into this difil- 
culty and danger, but we are deeply concerned as to the way 
how we shall get out of it. The danger is a common one. 
The whole country has a claim upon our sympathies and our 



8 THE PERIL OF OUR SHIP OF STATE. 

prayers ; no seclion of it, no party, but the whole country, the 
whole people, the common Constitution, and the as yet un- 
broken Union. It is our common interest that these should 
be preserved. They cost too much blood, too much treasure, 
to be lightly prized. The world can not afford the disruption 
of this Union. All that we hold dear on earth is bound up 
with it ; and hence every difference on minor questions must 
give way, in every loyal heart, to the great subject of its pre- 
servation, at any cost and every hazard, which God in his 
punitive providence may demand. The mere partisan is 
meaner than the meanest snail that crawls. Patriotism is not 
devotion to a party, but love for the country ; and this will be 
so felt by all true men, as to sink all dissensions in earnest 
prayer to God, for his wisdom and power to come to our re- 
lief, when human folly and pretentious weakness have proved 
unequal to our need. Our dear ones, our homes, our firesides, 
and our comforts are just so many reasons that strongly ap- 
peal to us, in common with the interests of the Church of 
Christ and of humanity, why we should cry unto God for his 
timely. and effectual deliverance; and the poor, pitiable ignor- 
ance that would blatter out a political harangue on such an 
occasion, would deserve to have its tongue cut out of its 
mouth. No, my friends and brethren, let our differences be 
for once forgotten, when we come before God. We are all 
sinners in his sight, we are suffering for our own sins, for our 
national sins, and the sins of our national men ; and we come 
to pray the Lord our God to have mercy on us, and not de- 
liver us over to the misery that must flow from the shedding 
of fratricidal blood. We come to ask him to take the com- 
mand out of weak hands, and weaker hearts, and distracted 
councils, and bring our Ship of State safe out of the place 
where these two seas meet, and moor her in the harbor of 
peace. We know that Christ is in the vessel, and we come 
to call upon him : " Master, Master, carest thou not that we 
perish?" 

We believe in an overruling Providence. We believe that 
national destiny is just as much in the hands of God as the 
smallest individual concern. He can turn the hearts of men 
as the rivers of water are turned. He can scatter the evil 



THE PERIL OF OUR SHIP OF STATE. 9 

counsels of the ill-designing, as leaves of autumn by a whirl- 
wind; and nothing shall prosper without his permission. This 
doctrine is the casket of our hope. We look lovingly upon 
our dear country, and fondly trace her career from a small 
beginning to a commanding importance. We view her as a 
Ship, whose keel was laid in prayer by pious builders of 
blessed memory ; whose ribs were principles of heavenly 
origin, hewn out of the Bible, and bolted together by immor- 
tal truth into an ark for Liberty. When fitted, and manned, 
and provisioned, she was set afloat upon the great sea of hu- 
man life ; and that she has proved herself adequate to every 
demand for social happiness, no man will dispute. That she 
is not perfect, that some of her timbers have been bad sticks 
from the beginning, we may well allow ; for nothing human 
was ever perfect since the fall of man. There never has been 
a perfect church on earth, and never will be until earth be 
renewed ; how much more must we expect weakness and 
wickedness, folly and moral disturbances in all secular societies 
and bodies of men, up to the most imposing State that ever 
challenged the admiration of the world ? We therefore say, 
it is no strange thing that there should be in our current poli- 
tical life many evils ; but the danger is when these evils be- 
come organic, and have worked into the very seat of that life, 
so as to originate consumption, decay, and political death. 

Individuals are referred by the Bible to a judgment to come, 
but nations can only be punished in this life ; and therefore 
God in his providence often visits them with dissensions, 
anarchy, and the sword, either to reform them, or to destroy 
them. But, at the same time, he is a God of mercy towards 
nations as much as for individuals. IIow was it in regard to 
Nineveh, that mighty city of the ancients, in which there were 
avast collection of human beings, whose common sins aroused 
the indignation of Jehovah to destroy it? God said unto 
Jonah: "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry 
against it; for their wickedness is come up before me." After 
the disobedient prophet was dealt with for his own sin of cow- 
ardice, he went to Nineveh, and through the streets of tbat 
great city he cried : " Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be 
overthrown." The consequence was, a day of fasting and 



10 THE PERIL OF OUR SHIP OF STATE. 

PRAYER. " For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he 
arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and 
covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused 
it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh, bj the 
decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man 
nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing; lejt them not feed, 
nor drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sack- 
cloth, and cry mightily unto God : yea, let them turn every 
one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their 
hands. "Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn 
away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?" (Jonah 
3 : 6-9.) 

The foolish prophet had the heartlessness to be angry be- 
cause the fate of the city was not sealed, according to his 
word. Now, hear the language of God's mercy : "And God 
said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd ? 
And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then 
said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which 
thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow ; which came up 
in a night, and perished in a night : and should not I spare 
Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thou- 
sand persons that can not discern between their right hand and 
their left hand ; and also much cattle?" (Jonah 4 : 9-11.) 

If such was the compassion of God toward a heathen city, 
surely we may hope for his kind interposition also. Our 
crimes, to be sure, are greater, because heathen blindness can 
not extenuate our guilt as it did theirs ; but, oh ! what a great 
interest has Christ our Lord in this land. We have therefore 
greater arguments to plead with God, and greater reason to 
hope and look for his mercy. 

That the agency of God is continuously efficient in the pub- 
lic affairs of the world, is abundantly proved by numerous 
examples. The counsels of the great men of the earth are or- 
dered by him to ends, very often, other than they aim at, and 
which their wisdom can not discover. God stirred up Sen- 
nacherib to the execution of his justice upon the Jews, and 
afterwards upon the Egyptians, when the only design of that 
king, was the gratification of his own ambition in the enlarge- 
ment of his kingdom, and in the support of his greatness. 



THE PERIL OF OUR SHIP OF STATE. 11 

God said: "I will send him against an hypocritical nation, 
and against the people of my wrath : however, he meaneth 
not so, neither does his heart think so." Sennacherib did not 
design to execute the purpose of God, but God meant that he 
should, even whilst moved by a selfish and sinful motive. 
Cyrus collected large forces to war against Babylon, only for 
the pleasure of his own ambition ; but he never dreamed that 
he was fulfilling a prophecy uttered before he was born, that 
thus he should deliver the Israelites, and restore the worship of 
God in their temple. Pharoah was forced to send the nation of 
Israel away, at the end of the four hundred and thirty years 
when their liberation from Egyptian bondage was fixed by 
prophecy, long before he was born. 

Again, God infatuates the counsels of rulers for the punish- 
ment of nations. It is expressly said: " The Lord hath ap- 
pointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent 
that he might bring evil upon Absalom." God sent Elisha to 
crown the wicked Jehu king, who said to him : " I have 
anointed thee king over the people, saith the Lord, that I may 
avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood 
of all the servants of the Lord at the hand of Jezebel." 

These are samples of remarkable facts, going to prove that 
God is the real Ruler in the aflairs of men ; and they serve to 
give point and prominence to the sharp declarations of his 
word. "The nation and the kingdom that will not serve him 
shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. If 
they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that 
nation, saith the Lord." " O house of Israel, can not I do with 
you as this potter, saith the Lord ?" "At what instant I shall 
speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck 
up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation against 
whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of 
the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant 
I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, 
to build and to plant it, if it do evil in my sight, that it obey 
not my voice, then will I repent of the good wherewith I said 
I would benefit them." 

In the light of his word, teaching me that God is the great 
Arbiter of national destiny, I turn away from all the puny 



12 THE PERIL OF OUR SHIP OF STATE. 

tricksters of national politics, and look to him in the belief 
that he will interpose, and save this nation gloriously. 

Our President has exhorted us to assemble, and to repent of 
our national sins before God. How can we obey this, unless 
we agree upon what our national sins are ? Do not all parties 
claim that their opponents are the sinners? ITow, we own that 
our national sins are many and great ; but as they are so 
mixed up with political questions, we will name but one, 
which involves a mighty moral question covering the whole 
moral laAV— a question with which it is therefore the duty of 
the pulpit to deal in a temperate and Christian manner. I 
allude to the subject oi American Slavery. The question here, 
he it remembered^ is not whether any form of servitude is ever 
defensible by the Bible, or compatible with the rights of man ; 
but whether American Slavery, as it is in law and in fact; be 
defensible on any ground. Beyond a reasonable doubt, the 
"Dred Scott decision" has given a more definite shape and 
consolidated power to the Anti-Slavery movement than any 
thing else of late. What is that decision of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, the majority of whose judges are 
Southern men ? It is this : " That black men have no 

RIGHTS THAT WHITE MEN ARE BOUND TO RESPECT !" That is 

the law ; and in such an aspect and exposition of American 
slavery, I denounce the whole system as " a sin against God 
and a crime against man." Is it true, human heart, is it 
true, that a black man has no rights which a white man is bound 
to respect? This decision, as the law of the land, proves 
American slavery to be a sin against God and a crime against 
man. But notwithstanding the outrageous principle, which 
has long lain latent in the system, and the source of its repug- 
nant laws, and not before so definitely expressed in any ju- 
dicial decision, stamps its character as we have defined it, in 
spite of special pleadings, yet we feel disposed to be con- 
siderate and forbearing in the spirit of meekness. 

This is the great national sin, as far above all others, in my 
judgment, as the heavens are high above the earth. God ! 
*' Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which 
frameth mischief by a law ?" This question originated the 
tempest which now heaves up an angry sea against the calmer, 



THE PERIL OF OUR SHIP OF STATE. 13 

deep-rolling, resistless tide of Freedom; and just in the place 
where the two seas meet, thej are in danger of running the 
ship aground. Loud are the traitorous clamors for perpetrat- 
ing this nefarious act ; and war against the resisting force, is 
proclaimed ! Palsied be the tongue, and shattered be the arm, 
that combine against this Union ! May God blast all counsels 
of treason, and distract all plots of disloyalty ! 

Summoned, as we are, by the President, to invoke the di- 
vine mercy in this emergency, I invite you to accompany me 
at the throne of grace with supplication, uniting in fervent 
prayer that God may please to restore peace, and by his 
mighty power to preserve our country from civil war, and 
from all dangers to defend our Union. 



THE FOLIY OF OUR SPECULATIONS. 



" Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and 
continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and get gain: "Whereas ye know not 
what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life ? It is even a vapor, that 
appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." — James 4 : 13, 14. 

Man is placed upon the earth, to fulfill the design of an in- 
dustrious creature, and the destiny of a moral and an account- 
able creature. When both of these purposes are constantly 
kept in view, men are generally sure of making the most of 
life, by living to the best advantage. But it is a notorious fact, 
that the largest majority do not live to the best advantage, do 
not turn their existence to the best account, and the reason is, 
because they disconnect these two great leading objects, whose 
union is always necessary to the best success. They think 
that industry should absorb all their time and attention in 
obtaining an independent position in the world, while they 
dismiss all thoughts of moral relations and accountability, be- 
yond the sphere of any given business in which they have 
vested their energies and expectations. 

They look upon themselves as the fabricators of their own 
fortunes, and upon this world as the mine whence they 
are to dig every thing valuable in life. They regard their 
time as only well employed when they can reap the profits of 
trade, or lay up the acquisitions of speculative sagacity and 
well-executed plans, whose wisdom has been proved by the 
amount of their gains. In the pursuit of worldly interests, they 
not only forget, if not repudiate, the claims of their Maker 
upon them, as moral and accountable creatures, but act under 



THE FOLLY OF OUR SPECULATIONS. 15 

a false persuasion of independency, by which thej practically 
discard the idea of indebtedness to Him, in whom they live and 
move and have their being. Hence their plans involve trea- 
son against the Lord of all, and their pursuits exhibit a total 
disregard of the highest interests and relations that belong to 
them as moral and accountable beings. 

To persons of this way of thinking, the Apostle directs the 
language of the text : " Gro to now, ye that say. To-day or to- 
morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, 
and buy, and sell, and get gain : Whereas ye know not what 
shall be on the morrow. For what is your life ? It is even a 
vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth 
away." 

The text contains a rebuke and a remonstrance, and the allu- 
sion in it, as you will readily perceive, is to the commercial bu- 
siness in which a large number of Jews were engaged, and for 
the prosecution of which they had to take long journeys to dis- 
tant trading-places, as Tyre, Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus and 
Corinth ; journeys which, at the time spoken of, were attended 
with many difliculties and dangers. Notwithstanding this, the 
proud boastful spirit of trade, then as now, both arrogant and 
egotistical, laid its plans, projected its voyages, carved out the 
future, and counted upon certainty as though there were no 
God to claim sovereignty over the affairs of men. 

I, The text contains a rebuke for the indulgence of a spirit 
of self-sufficiency. This is natural to the carnal heart, because 
it is prone to forget God. A self-sufficient spirit, is quite dif- 
ferent from a spirit of self-reliance. By the former, a man 
looks upon himself as all-sufficient to accomplish the purposes 
of his heart. By the latter, he regards himself as reliable 
just so far as sufficiency relates to human effort. By the for- 
mer, a man takes into his plans nothing beyond his own fore- 
cast and well-directed efforts ; by the latter, he counts upon 
these for what they are worth, regarding the fact of success as 
mainly owing to the sufficiency of God, in whose hands are 
all the events and issues of life. While self-sufficiency is in- 
compatible with piety, self-reliance is in perfect keeping with 
it. The one, being based upon an infidel pride, is an insult 
to God ; but the other acknowledging the necessity of God's 



16 THE FOLLY OF OUR SPECULATIONS, 

favor, puts honor upon his sovereignty, and relies upon self, 
only so far as self relies upon God. Hence it is clear that 
self-reliance is a duty, whilst self-sufficiency is an impious 
feeling and a sin of presumption. This sin is the one chal- 
lenged in the text, for two reasons — because we aim to gather 
all riches and happiness in this world, as the chief end of 
man, putting dishonor upon God's word ; and because we at- 
tempt to secure our aims, without regard to the leave of Hea- 
ven, and by the skill, contrivance and powers of execution 
within ourselves, thus putting dishonor upon Godi?, providence. 
Now self-reliance may easily be turned into self-sufficiency, 
and we hazard little in saying that such is, in multitudes of 
cases, the actual fact. This consideration renders the rebuke 
in the text of extensive application. But passing it by, for 
the time being, we wish mainly to direct 3'our attention to 

II. The second part of our passage, containing the remon- 
strance : " Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For 
what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a 
little time, and then vanisheth away." 

This remonstrance may be made, not only with the self- 
sufficient, but with all men ; because the best are too regard- 
less of the fact upon which it is based. It is more after the 
manner of men to make their calculations upon their sup- 
posed knowledge, than upon their actual ignorance of the fu- 
ture. This mistake is the origin of procrastination upon the 
subject of religion, in every class of mind — a subject of all 
others the least able to bear it. We know not what may be- 
fall us on the morrow, therefore it is not weakness but wick- 
edness to act as though we do, since the interests we hazard, 
are not for time, but for eternity. 

No subject is more frequently urged upon our attention in 
the Scriptures than the brevity of our earthly life. " It is 
even a vapor," says James, " that appeareth for a little time, 
and then vanisheth away." " The voice said, Cry, and the 
prophet said, What shall 1 cry ? All flesh is grass, and all the 
goodness thereof is as the flower of the field : the grass with- 
ereth, the flower fadeth ; because the Spirit of the Lord blow- 
eth upon it : surely the people is grass." Job exclaimed, 
" Oh ! remember that my life is wind." " Wilt thou break a 



THE FOLLY OF OUR SPECULATIONS. 17 

leaf driven to and fro ? and wilt tliou pursue the dry stubble ?" 
" Man Cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down ; he fleeth 
as a shadow, and continueth not." " Now my days are swifter 
than a post, they flee away, they see no good. They are passed 
away as the swift ships, as the eagle that hasteth to the prey." 
Thus, if we go to the land, the vanishiog vapor, the falling leaf, 
the withering grass, and the haste of the post, are the startling 
emblems of the shortness of life. If we look out upon the 
sea, the "swift ship," reminds us that the voyage of life, like 
her quick passage through the trackless waters, shall soon be 
over. If we look up into the air, the flight of the eagle dart- 
ing upon the prey, is a vivid emblem of the fleetness of time, 
and of life's rapidity in hastening away. Since all experi- 
ence and observation justify the apt similitudes of Scripture 
on this subject, no remonstrance against misapplication of 
time, and misimprovement of opportunities, ought to have 
greater weight with us than the language of the text. What 
is your life ? Look at the past for an answer. Years have 
succeeded years. Vicissitude, change, casualties, prosperity, 
adversity, the joys of life, the sorrows of death, broken friend- 
ships, new companionships, disappointments, successes, mis- 
fortunes, friends, enemies, and a thousand other things ap- 
pear confused as we look back upon by-gone years, whose 
details have faded away in the receding past, and whose deep- 
est impressions are made only in the consciousness of having 
lived and felt, and by the furrows and whitening hairs of ad- 
vancing age. What is your life ? Look at the present. We 
have gone through a brief period that has blasted the brightest 
hopes, has scattered the most carefully-gathered fortunes, has 
rooted out multitudes from their places where they thought 
they stood like evergreens in the richest soil of prosperity, 
has carried sadness of countenance and sorrow of heart to many 
a family ; while the remorseless hand of death, by every va- 
riety of means, has taken away the comforts of relatives and 
friends, and draped many households with the blackness of 
grief. Like the surgings of a flood, the agitations of all things 
human, are just now giving premonitions of other and greater, 
more radical and more fearful changes yet to come. Surely 
the shortness, inconstancy and uncertainty of life should cause 
2 



18 THE FOLLY OF OUR SPECULATIONS. 

US to feel the force of the answer the Apostle gives to his own 
question : " It is a vapor that appeareth for a little time and 
then vanishetli awaj. 

We have closed another year. Like the last ledger of 
time filled up, it is placed along with its predecessors on the 
shelf of eternity ; and it bears every man's name associated 
with his deeds and misdeeds, his omissions, failures and abuses 
of mercies, ready to be opened when "every man must give 
an account of himself to God." Men hear this, they know it, 
but they heed it not. How many of my audience have had 
compunctions of conscience on this matter as former years 
have rolled away, and though oft reminded of their duties 
and their dangers by the pulpit, have so well succeeded to 
overcome their feelings by a stifling process, that they now 
can hear of these things with a great deal of composure ? 

But when they shall come to the close of life, then in- 
deed as the last vapor of mortal breath shall leave the body, a 
clod, the truth of our text shall make its strongest impres- 
sion upon the soul as she closes her earthly experience. "What 
is life ? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and 
then vanisheth away." Should any of us then be found, as 
some of us are now found, out of the ark of safety, oh ! what 
will be our future? To thinh forever, of opportunities lost, 
when we might have attended to the tender calls of mercy ; 
to thinJc forever, of our misdirected lives on earth, which might 
have been turned to a good account; to feel forever, the pang 
of remorse, inseparable from the memory of the past, will be 
a calamity of existence that shall perfectly justify the terrific 
imagery of hell. 

God has spared us, that we may yet correct the vast folly of 
by-gone years. Oh ! shall it be done this year, at the opening 
of another chapter in the book of time ? I presume there is 
not one in this house who does not feel that there is a perfect 
uncertainty as to the continuance of his mortal life for a single 
day. By the ceaseless, restless, mental activity of our nature, 
we are always laying plans for the future. I do not say this is 
wrong ; nay I affirm it is right, if we practically plan and act 
upon the suggestion of the Apostle : " If the Lord will, we shall 
do this or that." But, no doubt, it is wrong, if our planning 



THE FOLLY OF OUR SPECULATIONS. 19 

and acting proceed upon the spirit of self-sufficienc3\ A high 
regard to the will of God, mixed up with our daily business, 
causes that business to be one of our means of glorifying his 
holy name. Thus our religion shall not be put on and off, 
like a Sabbath-day suit, but shall be worn as our working 
dress ; and then, if accident suddenly smite us off from this 
stage of existence, or disease slowly work our decay and death, 
we shall never be taken by surprise, nor called to the agony 
of meeting God unprepared. 

This is a season of accustomed congratulations, when amid 
all our varying circumstances we may rejoice in the goodness 
of our heavenly Father, whose kind hand has been ever open 
for the supply of our wants, and ever extended for the defense 
of our helplessness. If he have smitten any of us, it has been 
for our good, no less than the bestowment of food and rai- 
nicnt, and every other comfort. How kind are his dealings 
how rich and varied his mercies, how wonderful his salva- 
tion ! Oh ! let us be grateful in a generous surrender of our 
hearts to him through Jesus Christ our Lord. My earnest 
prayer for you all, is that God may lift up upon you the light 
of his countenance, and make you, this year, co-heirs with 
Christ to that inheritance that fadeth not away. No better 
wish can I form than your speedy acknowledgment of your 
best Friend, whose short life upon eartl^ and that terminated 
upon a cross, was spent to gain the possibility, nay the cer- 
tainty of salvation for all who come unto the Father by him. 
It will be the beginning of joy indeed, should you now come 
to Christ, and begin this year, as you would wish to end any 
portion of it, in the event of your summons to exchange time 
for eternity. 

The remonstrance of the text, contains a cogent argu- 
ment that ought to suffice for the correction of our errors. 
" For what is your life ? It is even a vapor that appeareth 
for a little time, and then vanisheth away." This argument, 
though sufficient to move all the feelings of the heart, is not 
simply addressed to them; it makes a powerful appeal to 
our intelligence. But then the question comes up, how is it 
that we forget a matter so immensely important, so as to live 
as though the probabilities of our continued existence were as 



20 THE FOLLY OF OUR SPECULATIONS. 

much deserving of reliance, as certainties and assurances? 
Alas ! it is because we are so fond of the world, that the love 
of God has little chance, so to speak, to sway our hearts, to 
modify our determinate self-sufficiency, or qualify our modes 
of thought and action. Hence worldly-mindeduess monopolizes 
the memory as well as the inclination ; and we forget^ upon 
the same principle that originates every other sin of omission. 

But let us once more be recalled to ourselves; let us stand 
upon the mount of our immortality, and thence look down 
into the valley of human life. At early morn, a heavy mist 
lies all along before us, every particle of which in that valley 
represents the life of a human being. The sun rises, and his 
consuming rays dissolve them by millions until they are all 
speedily gone. What has become of the mist? Is it anni- 
hilated? No. It rises high in the atmosphere, and the winds 
carry the invisible particles into some other region of space. 
The sun goes down, and during the cool of dampness in the 
dark, another mist is born ; and again another sun sends it 
by an invisible flight into the far-off regions of distant space. 
This is a picture of human life. By careful calculations, one 
of our race is born, and another dies every second of time. 
Thus in this vast mist of human life, eighty-six thousand four 
hundred immortal souls enter every day; and every day the 
same number departs This calculation is sufficiently accu- 
rate to claim the credit of a general rule, as is evinced by 
the slow increase of the human family on the average. At 
any rate, whatever inaccuracy there may be in the calculation, 
there is enough of truth in it to justify the imagery of the 
text : " What is your life ? It is even a vapor that appeareth 
for a little time, and then vanisheth away." 

If this vanishing away, were the end of man, there would 
then be little force in the Apostle's argument, since no higher 
aim would be before us, but to make the most of time and sense 
as every one might deem best. But there is a life beyond, not 
measured by the flight of years, nor bounded by the end of 
time. And all that life will take its character for joy or grief, 
unbroken in its continuance, from the type and form of this, 
for piety or irreligion. Surely then it is a far more solemn 
thing to live, than die. Like the particle of mist which lay in 



THE FOLLY OF OUR SPECULATIONS. 21 

the valley for a brief period, and then sublimated by the sun, 
and carried by the wind, into some far-ofif region, so the body 
must return to the earth, and the soul to God who gave it, and 
who will assign it an everlasting abode in heaven or hell. 

The two facts therefore of greatest prominence in the history 
of every man on earth, are these — he lived, and he died ; but 
the great fact of his future history will be, he lives never to 
die. Brief and uncertain then, as our days must be on any 
calculation, surely we must see, that to make tlie most of this 
life, is to secure the blessings of that which is to come. On 
this momentous business, we are not left to our own wit or 
wisdom; but as it is the most valuable, so it is the most 
luminously ?et forth in that great directory, the Holy Bible. 

It is no part of my present purpose to expound or enforce 
this truth, because that forms the main scope of general pul- 
pit instruction. But I wish, just now, to call attention to the 
point of time we occupy in our progress through life. We 
have, by the forbearance of God, finished another year; and 
by the goodness of God, been permitted to enter a new one. 
It is a season of congratulation, when friend meets friend ; 
and the accustomed salutation implies, or ought to imply, 
thanksgiving to God for his sparing mercy, while it expresses 
a hope for its continued enjoyment. But while the kindly 
feelings of our nature mount uppermost in the ringing glad- 
ness of sweet-voiced friendship, how much are our thoughts 
bound to this world and its pursuits, as though they formed 
the chief end of man ! 

May I not come with another and a more important mean- 
ing, as your pastor and your friend, infusing a more sacred and 
soul-stirring flow of thought into that salutation? 

The old year, like an old man, has been gathered to his 
fathers, and entombed in the burial-ground of time. But he 
has gone like an immortal spirit, carrying with him a wonder- 
ful burden of human accountability, and human grief, and hu- 
man woe. Many a heart has he left desolate ; many a house- 
hold in confusion. lie has carried away tears enough for an 
ocean, and sighs enough for a tempest upon its bosom — and all 
these wrung out of the palpitating heart of humanity by sin. 



22 THE FOLLY OF OUR SPECULATIONS. 

We may cry after him, " Stop, old man, take not with you 
the record of our wrongs and guilt to heaven's tribunal," but 
he heeds us not. He is gone. The pleasures which he brought 
us, the daily comforts he bestowed, where are they now? 
Gone too, and leaving us the bare remembrance of what they 
were. But the last year, as all its predecessors, has left its 
mark upon us, for good or ill, and it concerns us much to 
know Avhat that mark means, for eternity. 

I now show you a woodman who lays his axe at the root of 
a noble tree, while he takes off his coat for the work of its 
downAill. The crack of the axe rings out upon the clear cold 
wintry air, and stroke after stroke it makes its way to the heart. 
Stroke after stroke on the other side, soon brings it down with 
a crash, and all its nobleness is prostrate. Now gather round 
the mangled stump and learn a lesson. You see that from the 
core there is a number of concentric rings expanding one 
beyond the other outward, until they reach the bark. Each 
one of these has been the work of a 3'ear. You see this one is 
narrow : its year was one of drouth. You see that one is 
wider: its year was one of many showers. You see this inner 
one distorted by a knot ; and all the rest, at that place, were 
obliged to take the same irregularity. Here is a place of rot- 
tenness, and there you trace the gnawings of a worm. Each 
one of you, my hearers, is like that tree : some old, some young, 
but all devoted to the axe of death, each one, the result and 
growth of by-gone years, that stamp his soul with marks of 
weal or woe. Each ring, as it is formed from the heart out- 
wards, has its peculiarity which shall enter into the computa- 
tion of your general character. The knots of crime, the rotten- 
ness of selfishness, and the work of the worm of conscience, all 
appear amid the sound wood of healthy and fruitful growth. 

Another ring has now been begun. Oh ! shall it be an im- 
provement upon the rest ? Shall no knot break its roundness ? 
Shall no canker eat its substance? Shall the worm stop its 
ravages at the commencement of its growth ? Alas ! it's true, 
we are all corrupted at the core, and many a knot and many 
a worm-worn track within us is covered by the smoothness 
of the bark. Present evils are the forced growth of former 



THE FOLLY OF OUR SPECULATIONS. 23 

errors not known to the world, whose false judgment of us is 
formed from this smoothness of the outward appearance, the 
inside known alone to ourselves, and closely kept a secret from 
all but God, who knows us better than we know ourselves, and 
judges more impartially. 

Our wisdom is to begin the new year aright, however we may 
have misimproved. the old. Repentance for the past, will never 
blot out the sin, nor remove the stains of guilt it has left upon 
the soul. But yet it is necessary to stop the progress of pre- 
vious errors, that the ring of this year's growth around our trees, 
may start with fair prospect of being better in its nature, and 
more beauteous in its form. 

But, then, we must look to Christ whose yearning love, like 
the outspread wings of the mother hen as she calls to her wan- 
dering brood, offers to cover the humblest, the poorest, and the 
worst. O sinner, of many years or few, of any form and 
depth of guilt ! look on this noble-hearted substitute : He pitied, 
and he came to save ; he bowed beneath a weight of sin 
heavier than the ball of earth on which it is committed ; 
and by his mighty power, has gained, salvation for all who 
come to him. llcre, in this volume, are his works of love 
recorded ; here, his words of mercy ; here, his large promises, 
and proffered mercies — a crown of glory imperishable, the 
robes and dignity of sons of God, and life for evermore. He 
gives them freely, asking only thanks and loyalty. Oh ! put 
them not away ; hide them in thy heart, poor and penitent 
sinner. Oh ! what a new year's gift is this ! And shall it be, 
that cursed sin will prompt any one of you to reject it ! May 
Heaven .forbid ! 

This is the burden of my prayer, that God may convert the 
hearts of all of us now unconverted, within this year ; that 
God may mould the hearts of all that are converted, into a 
stricter conformity to the pattern of our blessed Lord ; that 
you and your children may live under the sweet influence of 
our holy religion, and being delivered from all narrow bigotry, 
from all belittling prejudice, from all false opinions, and every 
other perversity, may be educated through the Scriptures, by the 
Spirit, into the knowledge and grace of Jesus Christ ; that you 



24 THE FOLLY OF OUR SPECULATIONS. 

may be blessed with liberal hearts and full hands to gratify the 
prompting of a generous and Christian spirit ; that you may 
all live to see the restoration of peace to our country, and long 
live to enjoy the fruits of our glorious Union rising triumphant 
over every foe. I embody these wishes in the usual form of 
wishing you a Happy New Year ! 



STRICTURES OX A RECENT SERMON, 

BY KEV. H. J. VAN" DYKE. 



A PAMPHLET, containing a sermon Ly Rev. Mr. Vandyke, "(9;i 
the Cliwacter and Influence of Abolitionism^'''' has been set afloat 
in my congregation, whose object seems to be to subserve a par- 
ty end. At the present crisis, it seems to me very ill-timed, un- 
less the autlior prefers to migrate South. He had a right to nail 
up over his pulj)it the four theses^ as he calls the toj)ics of his dis- 
course, and to defend them as best he could ; but at this juncture, 
when party-foeling every where in the land is at fever-heat, and 
treasonable words and Avorks excite the whole country, he was not 
justifiable in putting to press a sermon of this character. Because 
its illogical reasonings may leave impressions upon the minds of 
some of my people, false in themselves and injurious to others, I 
deem it right to notice this performance. From its construction 
and apparent aim, the common reader would infer that the author 
means to teach, that the system of slavery, as it is in our coimtry, 
is an institution of God ; and that Christians, not pro-slavery men 
on Scriptural ground, are Abolitionists. 

His text is, 1 Tim. G : 1-5. "Let as many servants as are 
under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that 
the name of God and his doctrine bo not blasphemed. And 
they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, be- 
cause they are brethren ; but rather do them service, because they 
are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things 
teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not 
to Avholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and to the doctrine Avhich is according to godliness ; he is 
proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strife of 
words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisiugs, 
perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of 



26 STRICTURES ON A RECENT SERMON. 

the truth, supposing that gaiu is godliness : from such withdraw 
thyself." 

The first paragraph is a well-considered compliment to the au- 
dience, in accordance with the well-known art of the orator ; and 
we give it entire, as a deserved indorsement of their undoubted 
Christianity : 

" I propose to discuss the character and influence of abolition- 
ism. With this view, I have selected a text from the Bible, and 
purpose to adhere to the letter and spirit of its teaching. We ac- 
knowledge, in this place, but one standard of morals — but one au- 
thoritative and infallible rule of fiiith and practice ; for we are 
Christians here ; not blind devotees, to bow down to the dictation 
of any man or church ; not heathen philosophers, to grope our 
way by the feeble glimmerings of the liglit of nature ; not modern 
infidels, to appeal from the written law of God to the corrupt and 
fickle tribunal of reason and humanity ; but Christians, on whose 
banner is inscribed this sublime challenge : ' To the law and to the 
testimony ; if they speak not according to this word, it is because 
there is no light in them.' " 

He tells us that he has " selected a text from the BiUey This 
is very obvious. " And purposes to adhere to the letter and 
spirit of its teaching." This is not quite so clear, for he gives no 
exposition of his own ; but instead of " this sublime challenge, 
' To the law and to the testimony,' " he has gone to McKnight, 
Clarke, Doddridge, and Weisinger. This, as second-best, is a way 
of adhering to the teachings of a text, by no means despicable, 
provided the poor men be fairly dealt with ; but just here, we are 
sorry to say, our author comes a little short. 

Beginning with McKnight, he says : " He introduces his exposi- 
tion of this chapter with this explanation : 

" ' Because the law of Moses (Exodus 21 : 2) allowed no Israel- 
ite to be made a slave for life without his own consent, the Juda- 
izing teachers, to allure slaves to their party, taught that, under 
' the Gospel, likewise, involuntary slavery is unlawful. This doc- 
trine the Apostle condemned here, as in his other epistles, (1 Cor. 
7 : 20 ; Col. 3 : 22 ; Eph. 6 : 5,) by enjoining Christian slaves to 
honor and obey their masters, whether they were believers or im- 
believers, and by assuring Timothy that, if any person taught 
otherwise, he opposed the wholesome precepts of Jesus Christ 
and the doctrine of the Gospel, which in all points is conformable 
to godliness or sound morality, and was pufl:ed up with pride, 
without possessing any true knowledge either of the Jewish or 
Christian revelation.' " 



STEICTURES OX A RECENT SERMON. 27 

But Mr. Van Dyke stops here at the wrong place : he ought to 
have given McKnight's explanation of the fourth verse of his 
text, in continuance, which we will supply : " Xext, the Apostle 
told Timothy .that the Judaizers, who inculcated such a doctrine, 
did it to make gain of the slaves, whom they persuaded to em- 
brace the Gospel in the hope of thereby becoming freemen ; and 
that these teachers esteemed that the best relio-ion which brouscht 
them the greatest gain." 

Xow if the author, as he was bound to do, had introduced this 
part of McKnight's explanation^ it would have been a key to the 
Avhole, showing that Paul, by the directions given in these verses, 
did NOT mean to yield any support to the institution of slavery, 
but so to instruct the slaves, as to preserve the church from the 
membership of unworthy persons, and also to defeat the aforesaid 
design of Judaizers. This was his main object, and any one can 
see it. Wliy did our autlior suppress it ? "Why did he not give 
this " testimony " of McKnight as to the Apostle's main design ? 
But he goes on to say, "It would be easy for me to confirm the 
testimony of Dr. IMcKnight," that is, as he would have us believe, 
in behalf of slavery, " by extracts from commentators of every 
name and nation." No doubt of it. We shall see how he 
manages Clarke. "Dr. Adam Clarke, who is the standard of 
biblical criticism among our Methodist brethren, and perhaps tlie 
most learned man that large and zealous denomination has ever 
produced, gives us the folio ^ving clear exposition," says our author : 

" ' The word doulol (servants) here means slaves converted to 
the Christian faith ; and the zugon or yoke is tJie state of slavery^ 
and by despotai^ masters, we are to understand the heathen masters 
of those Cliristianized slaves. Even these in such circumstances, 
and under such domination, are commanded to treat their masters 
with all honor and respect, that the name of God by which they 
were called, and the doctrine of God, Christianity, which they had 
professed, might not be blasphemed — might not be evilly spoken 
of in consequence of their improper conduct. Civil rights are 
never abolished by any communications from God's Spirit. The 
civil state in which a man was before his conversion, is not altered 
by that conversion ; nor docs the grace of God absolve him from 
any claims which either the State or his neighbor may have on 
him. All these outward things continue unaltered. And they 
tliMt Jtave believing masters let them not despise tJieni, supposing 
themselves to be their equals because they are their brethren in 
Christ : and grounding their opinion on this, that in him there is 
neither mule nor female^ bond nor free: for, although all are equal 



28 STRICTURES ON A RECENT SERMON. 

as to their spiritual privileges and state, yet there still continues 
in the order of God's providence a great disparity in their station ; 
the master must ever be, in this sense, superior to the servant. 
• But rather do them service — obey them the more cheerfully, be- 
cause they zxe faithful and beloved— faithful to God's grace, he- 
loved by him and his true followers. Partakers of the benefit. 
This is genei-ally understood as referring to the master's participa- 
tion in the services of his slaves ; or it may apply to the servants 
who are partakers of many benefits from their Christian masters. 
Other think that benefit here refers to the grace of the Gospel, the 
common salvation of believing masters and slaves.' " 

It will be remembered that our aiithor has taken five verses for 
his text, and advertises his readers that he will " adhere to the let- 
ter and spirit of its teaching." In doing so, he relies entirely 
upon the expositions of certain commentators. Of course, he was 
bound, in all fairness to his helps, to give these expositions entire. 
This extract is so printed that one would be apt to suppose it is 
all that Clarke says by way of elucidation, whereas it is the expla- 
nation of the first two verses only. We will supply so much of 
the remainder as will do Dr. Clarke justice. 

"3. If any man teach otherwise.^ It appears that there were 
teachers of a different kind in the church, a sort of religious level- 
ers, who preached that the converted servant had as much right 
to the master's service as the master had to his. Teachers of this 
kind have been in vogue long since the days of Paul and 
Timothy." 

" And consent not to wholesome words,] heeding doctrines, doc- 
trines which give nourishment and health to the soul ; which is the 
true character of all the doctrines taught by our Lord Jesus 
Christ ; doctrines which are according to godliness, securing as 
amply the honor and glory of God as they do the peace, happi- 
ness, and final salvation of man." 

" All this may refer to the general tenor of the Gospel, and not 
to any thing said, or supposed to have been said by our Lord., rela- 
tive to the condition of slaves. With political questions, or ques- 
tions relative to private rights, our Lord scarcely ever meddled ; 
he taught all men to love one another ; to respect each other's 
rights ; to submit to each other ; to show all fidelity ; to be obedi- 
ent, humble, and meek ; and to know that his kingdom was not 
of this world." 

"4. Doting about questions.'] He is sick, distempered, about 
these questions relative to the Mosaic law and the traditions of the 



STRICTURES ON A RECENT SERMON. 29 

elders ; for it is most evident that the Ajjostle has the Judaizing 
teachers in view." 

" Strife of icords,^ logomachies / verbal contentions, splitting 
hairs," 

'■'•Perverse disputings of men of corrupt mindsi] Both nnder 
the law and under the Gospel the true religion was, Tliou shalt 
love the Lord thy God xoith all thy heart, soid, mind, and strength^ 
and thy neighhor as thyself Where, therefore, the love of God 
and man does not prevail, there is no religion." 

Now, it is evident from this " clear exposition," that, in the 
judgment of Dr. Clarke, the Apostle's main drift was to sweep 
away the pernicious influence of Judaizing teachers, to exhort 
Christian slaves to behave as becometh the doctrines of godliness, 
and to resist the selfish aims of wicked men. It was not his pur- 
pose at all to teach any thing either explicitly or impliedly upon 
the subject of slavery, or upon the conditio7i of bondage in which 
slaves were " under the yoke ;" but he confined his instructions 
exclusively to the conduct of slaves as Christians in that hard 
condition ; and this was the point to be urged by Timothy. 

If our author had given the Avhole of Dr. Clarke's exposition of 
the text, he would have thoroughly emasculated all the vigor of 
the following sentences : " The text, as thus expounded by the con- 
current testimony of all the commentators, is a proi^hecy written 
for these days, and wonderfully applicable to our present circum- 
stances. It gives us a life-like picture of Abolitionism in its prin- 
ciples, its spirit, and its practice, and furnishes us plain instructions 
in regard to our duty in the premises." This is a little amusing, 
when we know that Adam Clarke was one of the most incorrigible 
Abolitionists that ever lived. He says, in his commentary upon 
Ephesians G : 5 : '- In heathen countries, slavery was in some sort 
excusable ; among Christians, it is an enormity and a crime, for 
which perdition has scarcely an adequate state of punishment." 
Alas ! for Adam Clarke ! 

So far, then, as exposition is concerned, our author's own au- 
thorities are dead against him ; and therefore we can understand 
it was not convenient to be exactly J?^5< toward them. But Mr. 
Van Dyck informs us, that " the text is thus expounded by the 
concurrent testimony of all the commentators." Is this true ? It 
is not. 

Bloomfield, on this passage, says : " It was obvious that the 
q:>irit of the Gospel is adverse to slavery. Indeed, in propor- 



30 STRICTURES O A RECENT SERMON. 

tion as its injunctions are obeyed, it tends to root out a prac- 
tice in wliicli folly and injustice are alike conspicuous." His ex- 
position of the meaning of the whole passage is in conformity with 
that above mentioned. The same is true of Whitby, who says: 
"It is evident from Justin Martyr and TertuUian, that the com- 
mon stock of Christians was employed to buy their brethren out 
of bonds and servitude." Scott says of this passage : " It shows 
that Christian masters were not required to set their slaves at 
liberty, though they were instructed to behave toward them in 
such a manner as would greatly lessen and nearly annihilate 
slavery. It would have excited much confusion, awakened the 
jealousy of the civil powers, and greatly retarded the progress of 
Christianity, had the liberation of slaves by their converts been ex- 
pressly rG(\mre(\. by the apostles; though the principles of both 
the law and the Gospel, when carried to their consequences, will 
infallibly abolish slavery." So much for our author's fairness. 

Now when we get the real explanation of the Apostle by the 
" concurrent testimony of the commentators," we see this passage 
does not serve Mr. Van Dyck at all. His object is to prove that 
this text impliedly gives the divine sanction to slavery ; and that 
its rebukes are " prophetically written for these days, and wonder- 
fully applicable to our present circumstances." But the commen- 
tators show directly the reverse. They show that its admonitions 
are given to slaves, not to commend to them their condition as 
divinely constituted, but to regulate their conduct in that condition ; 
that the name of God and his doctrines should not be blasphemed 
by their masters and others. Therefore, neither in letter nor spirit, 
by any possibility of fair construction, is it capable of being tor- 
tured into a " prophecy," or of being shown " wonderfully ai^pli-. 
cable to our present circumstances." To assert that " it gives a 
life-like picture of Abolitionism in its principles, its spirit, and its 
practice," is the grossest blunder that could well be made ; and it 
is marvelous how any man, claiming scholarship, and starting with 
an implied assurance that he would not handle the word of God 
deceitfully, can risk his reputation in this way. 

Mr. Van Dyke thus defines an Abolitionist : " He is one who 
believes slavery is sin, and ought to be abolished." This is not 
correct. An Abolitionist is one who believes that slavery, under 
all circumstances, is sin, and ought to be immediately abolished. 
There is a great diiFerence between these two propositions. The 
latter accurately describes an Abolitionist, and at once explains to 



STRICTUEES OX A RECENT SERMON. 81 

US how two extremes meet, when he and the Southern pro- 
slavery man can stand upon the same platform of disunion, each a 
cornucoina of fanaticism and treason. Between their creeds is a 
vast body of conservative men, who believe that our slavery is 
sin, and ought to be abolished, when it can be done without pro- 
ducing greater and more deplorable evils. 

The plain inference from this sermon is, that there are upon this 
moral question but two parties : they who hold slavery to be right, 
and they who regard it as sin. That all who hold it to be moralhj 
icrong are Abolitionists in the popular sense of that word, under 
all the odium, and are guilty of " Abolitionism in all its ramified 
and various forms." Now this is utterly at variance with facts, 
and shows that the author has either unwittingly or wickedly 
broken the ninth commandment. lie tells us that some " content 
themselves with voting in such a Avay as in their judgment will 
best promote the ultimate triumph of their views." " Others 
stand off at what they suppose a safe distance, as Shimei did when 
he stood on an opposite hill to curse King David." " Others, 
more practical, if not more prudent, go into the very midst of the 
alleged wickedness, and teach ' servants under the yoke ' that they 
ought not to count their own masters worthy of all honor." He 
then insinuates that llev. Mr. Beecher and John Brown, Aboli- 
tionists in the whole, and the Heroes of Harper's Ferry, are chips 
of the same block. 

Such a dishonorable use of the pulpit for party pui'poses in these 
times is perfectly execrable, whether it be by an Abolitionist or 
by Mr. Van Dyke. But the publication of such perversions of the 
Scripture, of such injurious and inflammable matter at the present, 
as we find in his performance, deserves the indignant frown of 
every lover of his country. 

This author's first tJtesis is, that " Abolitionism has no founda- 
tion in the Scriptures." He includes in this term all anti-slavery 
sentiments held on the morality of this question. There is not a 
single word to the contrary. Now, such a thesis, is a mere hypo- 
thesis. We plant right down here, Isaiah 58 : 5 : "7s oiot this 
the fast that I have chosen ? to loose the bands of loiclcedness^ to 
undo the heavy burdens^ and to let the oppressed go free^ and that 
ye break every yoke?'''' "We should like to have our author's 
extracts from commentators on this passage fairly'given. It looks, 
alarmingly very much, as though God himself was chargeable 
with Abolitionism. 



32 STRICTURES ON A RECENT SERMON. 

Under this thesis^ the author goes into the merits of Hebrew 
bondage^ to prove the Sciptural warrant for American slavery. 
Or, in the words of his admired commentator, " distempered 
about these questions relative to the Mosaic law," he treats his ad- 
versaries as though they must be confounded at once by its doc- 
trines against Abolitionism. A grosser fallacy never was imposed 
upon his hearers or readers. If a likeness existed between Mo- 
saic bondage and American slavery, his argument would not only 
be legitimate but unanswerable. But the truth is, there is no 
likeness at all. We now proceed to prove it. 

Hebrew slavery was (1) the voluntary bondage of men, other 
than negroes. There is no evidence that a Hebrew was allowed to 
buy a man, not a criminal, from a third j)arty ; but he might buy 
his time for a short or long period while the bondman retained bis 
natural rights as a man. So in the case of involuntary bondage. 
The^yropertg of the master was in the service, and not in the ser- 
vant ; hence, under no circumstances, could a Hebrew hold a man 
as a chattel. There was no such thing as turning personality into 
property by the laws of Moses, because that would have been an 
act introducing moral disturbances into the law of God, and le- 
galizing violence to the nature of man. 

(2.) Involuntary bondage was inflicted upon captives taken in 
Avar, insolvent debtors, and criminals, and persons judicially de- 
voted by God to this degradation ; but in no other case was it 
permitted. Hence the stringent law of Moses, Exodus 21 : 16 : 
" He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his 
hands, he shall surely be put to death.'''' Now it is a principle 
which all men receive, except the implicated, that the receiver is as 
bad as the thief. What, then, under the operation of this law, 
would have been the fate of our Southern brethren, when it is 
conceded on all hands that their slaves are all the issue of stolen 
men, and at this hour many of them are clamorous for the reopen- 
ing of the African slave-trade ? 

Again. All the servants of the Israelites were protected from 
cruelty by laws that required their manumission as a compensation 
for being maimed by their masters. And above all privileges, they 
enjoyed the benefit of a fugitive slave law made in their oion be- 
half. Deut. 23 : 15, 16: " Thou shalt not deliver unto his m,aster 
the servant that is escaped from his master unto thee. He shall 
dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall 
choose in one of thy gates, where it liheth him best : thou shalt not 
oppress him.'''' 



STRICTURES ON A RECENT SERMON, 33 

The foregoing facts are too numerous to allow of my proof of 
them being spread out in a brief paper ; and I can well afford to 
be content with the bare enumeration, because they will, I fancy, 
be denied by none whose denial is predicated on sound reason 
and fact. 

In order to show the utter fallacy of Mr, Van Dyke's argument 
from the Mosaic system, we have only to say, that the substitution 
of the one for the other, would destroy it in a short time ; and, 
that American slavery is nearly the same as the Roman slavery of 
our Saviour's day. It is a reproduction in its details of the " hea- 
then institution." According to Roman law, slaves were esteemed 
pro nullis^ pro mortuis^ ^^ro quadrupedibus / that is, they were 
not considered as in the condition of rnen^ but in that of the dead, 
in that of beasts. They had no name, and no human right in 
law, but were regarded and treated as chattel-property. Of 
course, a master could do any thing he pleased with his slave, 
even to the taking of his life. 

How is it with the " peculiar institution " of our country ? The 
slaves of the South, are all the issue of stolen men. They are en- 
tirely under despotic rule. The details of our slave code are 
horrid to any sensitive heart. But this is all proper, according to 
the law of our Supreme Court, " That black men have no rights 
that white men are boimd to respects That is the law : and under 
this law, there can be no abuses, beyond those which dumb brutes 
are subject to. It is a perfectly fair business to go to Africa, and 
catch negroes, and enslave them, and sell them like monkeys and 
tigers. You may embrutc them, prostitute them, separate their 
families at the auction-block, and do almost any thing with them 
which might be done under the Roman yoke. 

And this is the system which Mr. Van Dyke aims to justify by 
the argument of Mosaic slavery ! It is in vain to say, these are 
abuses, and that it is unfair to argue against the use from the 
abicscpof a system. Common consent is the parent of law; and 
no system can exist, without its permeation by law, hence as is 
the law, so is the system. We therefore say, that according to 
the aforesaid law, if it be esteemed correct, the system must be 
regarded as susceptible of no abuse, beyond that of brutes ; and 
if the law is not correct, the icse is the abuse. In either case it is 
condemned by the Mosaic Law, and also by the principles of the 
Gospel. 

3 



34 STRICTURES ON A RECENT SERMON. 

Oar author goes farther, and argues for Roman slavery ; and 
his argument amounts to this ; that upon the part of Christ, silence 
gives consent. 

He asks : 

" How did Jesus and his Apostles act ? Masters and slaves 
met tliem at every step in their missionary work, and w^ere 
present in every audience to which they preached. The Roman 
law, which gave the full power of life and death into the master's 
hand, was iamiliar to them ; and all the evils connected with the 
system surrounded them every day, as obviously as the light of 
heaven. And yet, it is a remarkable fact, Avhich the Abolitionist 
does not, because he can not deny, that the New Testament is 
utterly silent in regard to the alleged sinfulness of slaveholding. 
In all the instructions of the Saviour ; in all the reported sermons 
of the inspired Apostles ; in all the epistles they were moved^ by 
the Holy Spirit to write, for the instruction of coming generations 
— there is not one distinct and explicit denunciation of slavehold- 
ing, nor one precept requiring the master to emancipate his slaves. 
Every acknowledged sin is openly and repeatedly condemned, and 
in unmeasured terms. Drunkenness and adultery, theft and mur- 
der — all the moral wrongs which ever have been known to afflict 
society, are forbidden by name ; and yet, according to the teach- 
ing of Abolitionism, this greatest of all sins — this sum of all villa- 
nies — is never spoken of except in respectful terms. How can 
this be accounted for ? " (Page 15.) 

This is a strange statement. The Apostles enunciated princi- 
ples utterly at war with slavery, whose practical operation would 
tend to abolish it, while in all their directions given to those living 
in this relation, they were careful never to concede or recognize the 
right of the master. They never speak of slavery in respectful 
terms, any where in any of their writings. On the contrary there 
is something which bears hard on it, in 1 Tim 1:10. If, because 
the New Testament is utterly silent in regard to the alleged sinful- 
ness of slavery, we must argue that it approves it, then it must also, 
by the same argument, approve the master's irresponsible power of 
life and death over the slave ; it must approve the denial of mar- 
riage to the slave, and it must approve the condition in which he 
was held, legally thus expressed, " pro nullis, pro mortuis, pro 
quadrupedibus ; " for there is no " explicit denunciation " of this 
barbarous law, out of which " all the evils connected with the 
system " grew. Can we find any precept or direction in the New 
Testament teaching how to distinguish the abuse from the use of 
slavery ? No. Therefore according to our author, it was all 



STRICTURES ON A RECENT SERMON. 85 

good under the Roman law! This is fine doctrine, be sure, 
to be proclaimed from a Christian pulpit in behalf of a heathen 
institution ! 

But Mr. Van Dyke proceed to answer an objection, thus : 

" It is often said that if the Bible does sanction slaveholding, it 
does not sanction Amerieaa slavery y that it is not against slave- 
holding abstractly that the Abolitionist protests, but against the 
system of American slavery takeyi as a lohole. 

To this I answer, the Bible does not sanction American mar- 
riage.'''' 

This is admirable. lie might just as well have said, for all the 
purposes of a pertinent reply, that the Bible does not sanction 
Barnum's " Happy Family." God instituted marriage, but he did . 
not institute slavery. He gave express sanction to the former as 
a laio for the race, but ho never did so legislate as to the latter. 
The fallacy is apparent, and the booming periods that expand this 
harlequin argument are funny. 

But, a little farther on, we find a worse blunder. lie says : 

"The Gospel does not sanction either the sysfewi of American 
marriage, or the system of American slavery, (if by system be 
meant every thing connected with the ]>ractical workings of the 
two relations ;) but then it did sanction both mai-riago and slave- 
holding under a system of laws, and in a condition of public morals, 
worse than now exist in either Xew-York or Charleston." 

Here we are tokl, that the Gospel does not sanction the system 
of American slavery, but that it did sanction slaveholding under a 
worse system than the American system ! This is admirable again. 
And still farther on, he says : "I cordially incline to the current 
opinion of our Church, that slavery is permitted and regulated by 
the Divine law, under both the Jewish and Christian dispensa- 
tions." Here wo are further informed, that the Gospel, does not 
sanction, yet both jyermits and regidates American slavery, for no 
other exists under the Christian dispensation ! Such miserable 
stuff", the author has the folly to suppose, sensible people wilt ac- 
cept as argument, proof, demonstration ! 

Mr. Van Dyke is not only unjust towards the vast body of anti- 
slavery men, but his sermon looks very much like a political torch 
with some seditioii in the flame. Speaking of Southern ministers 
who advocate secession, he says, " They hope that under some 
other government they may have that peace for the prosecution 
of their Master's work, which the Constitution of the United 



36 STRICTURES OX A RECENT SERMON. 

States has hitlierto failed to secure for them ; " and adds : " In 
my heart I do not blame them." " We have no fears that if the 
new Administration could be quietly inaugurated, it would or 
could abolitionize the government." Innuendoes like these — 
and there are enough of them — put forth at the present time, go 
far to implicate the author in the same sin for which he rebukes 
Mr. Beecher. " Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest 
thou not thyself ? " 

Our author knows, or ought to know, that anti-slavery men, in 
distinction from the political Abolitionists, hold that every South- 
ern State has a constitutional right to keep slavery as it is, where 
it is ; and that in spite of any power on earth ; they do not wish to 
encourage, much less attempt interference with the "peculiar 
institution " where it exists by local law, and under the protection 
of the Constitution. His talk therefore about " abolitionizing the 
government " is intensely absurd. There is a host of anti-slavery 
men at the North, who will go for our Union, in opposition, alike 
to Abolitionists and pro-slavery fanatics. Whilst we denounce the 
impious rashness of the technical Abolitionist, we no less despise 
the detestable apology that seeks to shield an abominable Heathen 
Institution under the sanction of the pure Gospel of Christ. 

Our pro-slavery advocate informs us that " an article published 
twenty years ago in the .Princeton Hevieio contains this remarkable 
language : 

" ' The opinion that slaveholding is itself a crime must operate to 
produce the disunion of the States and the division of all ecclesias- 
tical societies in this country. Just so far as this opinion operates, 
it will lead those who entertain it to submit to any sacrifices to 
carry it out and give it efiect. We shall become two nations in 
feeling, which must soon render us two nations in flxct.' 

" These words," says he, " are wonderfully prophetic, and they 
who read the signs of the times must see that the period of their 
fulfillment draws near." 

This reference turns out to be a little unfortunate. The article 
specified was published in the first volume of selections from the 
Princeton Itevieio in 1847, and lately has been reproduced in a 
volume of " Essays and Reviews, by Dr. Hodge." Now we are 
sorry to say, onx Author^ s work, bating the commentaries, is sim- 
ply Dr. Hodge's well-woven web of sophistry, ravelled out, picked, 
and made over his own block into a felt hat for the bald pate of 
slavery : that is all. By the help of the dead, and the living, he 



STRICTURES ON A RECENT SERMON. 37 

has manufactured this hat, and stuck a white feather in the band, 
borrowed from Dr. Palmer. Well done. Genius ! But we think 
the following reO. plume ought to have been added. Dr. Palmer 
says of his own argument : " It establishes the nature and solem- 
nity of our pr<?sent trust, to preserve and transmit our existwff 
si/stem of domestic servitude^ tcith the right nnchallenfjed by maji, 
to go and root itself v:herever Providence and nature may carry 
itP That means, to root it in all our territories, and all over the 
United States as well. 

Now Ave have shown what this system is not, by the Mosaic 
servitude ; and what it is, by the Roman law ; and Mr. Van Dyke 
has acknowledged that the Gospel opjwses it. But why play fast 
and loose with Dr. Palmer ? It is the system which Dr. Palmer 
pronounces a trust " confided to them by God," whose warp and 
woof are the organic laws and daily facts of Southern slavery ; a 
system of which he says : " Not till the last man has fallen behind 
the last rampart shall it drop from our hands ; and then only in 
surrender to the God who gave it ! " Slavery then, by his judg- 
ment, is the sold of the Southern body ; we need not therefore won- 
der that the " members " are " instruments of unrighteousness 
unto sin." But our author, treading carefully the tracks of Dr. 
Hodge, ventures to dissent a little. He strives to separate the 
slavery from the system, pronouncing the former upheld, and the 
latter opposed by the Gospel. Dr. Palmer is more consistent than 
either of them. You might as well ravel the woof out of the 
warp, as Mr. Van Dyke has done with Dr. Hodge's article, and 
then pronounce the web unharmed, as to separate the law from the 
fact in the system of slavery, and then maintain that the slavery 
without the system is capable of existence. 

As the Sermon is the bowels of the Article, no doubt it will be 
a great feast for Southern bears, and the hand will be well licked 
that carries it ; but we trust there are few among us that wovdd 
do the same work. 

Southern preachers and politicians are bed-fellows in treason, 
giving us the alternative of Disunion, or our acknowledgment 
of their right to i)usli the system Avherever they can, unchallenged 
by men ; notwithstanding, we think, with Mr. Van Dyke, it is 
opposed by the Gospel. He is guilty of a monstrous misstate- 
ment, when, for increasing the heat of the hot-heads, he says : 
" This division of fcehng, of which actual disunion will be but 
the expression and embodiment, was begotten of Abolitionism.'* 



38 STRICTURES ON A RECENT SEIUION. 

Where is the ■vvell-iaformecl person who does not know, that the 
Abolitionists voted against the Chicago Platform in solid co- 
lumns? They go for disunion, and so do the men to whom Mr. 
Van Dyke says liis soul is knit. We affirm that by a series ot 
aggressive acts, the South has been the pkocukixg Cause of the 
present troubles. She repealed the Missouri Compromise, she 
screamed with delight over the assassin-blow inflicted by one of 
her bullies upon Charles Sumner. She begun and perpetuated the 
bloody work in Kansas. She brought forth, by Southern judges, 
the revolting " Dred Scott Decision." Her espionage, and mal- 
treatment of ISToi'thern men on business at the Soixth ; her repeat- 
ed infractions of the Constitiition in the wanton violation of their 
constitutional rights ; her shocking offenses of tarring and feather- 
ing, and whipping and hanging Northern citizens, upon the pre- 
tenses that meaimess and maUce can always set up, all applauded 
by the Southern press ; these are some of the reasons, known to 
all men, wdiich have consolidated a feeling that secured the suc- 
cess of the Chicago Platform ; and now because of that success 
fairly obtained by their own agency in part — they will dissolve 
the Union ! Let the saddle be put upon the right horse. 



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